Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development K.T. Rama Rao has, on Monday, launched a total of 1,152 double-bedroom dwelling units at three locations in the city.
Of these, 840 units were built at Jiyaguda, 192 at Ghode ki Kabr, and 120 at Kattelamandi, with a total outlay of ₹ 95.58 crore. At Jiyaguda, the structure is stilt plus five floors with a cost of ₹71.4 crore, with 568 units allotted for the slum dwellers who vacated for in situ construction of homes. At the remaining two locations, the structure is ground plus three floors. At Kattelamandi, the cost of construction is ₹ 9.3 crore, with 103 allotted for the in situ allotment, while at Ghode ki Kabr, the cost of construction is ₹14.88 crore, with 139 earmarked for in situ allotment.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Rama Rao said Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao is pitching in with financial assistance with regard to two most difficult life tasks of the common man, namely building a house and getting a daughter married. The government is building a total of 2.5 lakh double-bedroom units across the State with an outlay of ₹18,000 crore. Market value of these houses would be to the tune of ₹ 70,000 crore, Mr. Rama Rao said. Already 50 per cent of the houses have been completed.
Of the total, one lakh houses are being constructed for the urban poor within the city, with an expenditure of ₹ 9 lakh for each, he claimed, and said the market value of each house would be around ₹ 40 lakh. He questioned the veracity of the figures about construction of 40 lakh houses under the weaker sections’ housing programme since 1985, and wondered had it been true then why there were still poor families without homes. Existence of the double-bedroom dwellings built by the Telangana government, on the contrary, can be verified on the ground, he said.
The Minister has cautioned people against trusting any middlemen for allotment of the units, and said the selection of beneficiaries would be done by officials in a transparent manner. At Jiyaguda, beneficiaries in the housing colony have been urged to form a society and take care of the maintenance and sanitation of the colony with the rents obtained from the shopping complex built within the premises, comprising 56 shops. All the colonies will have Basti Dawakhana, Anganwadi centre, library, and all infrastructural facilities including roads, drinking water, and electricity on a par with gated communities, he said.
Ministers Mohammed Mahmood Ali, T. Srinivas Yadav, Mayor Bonthu Ram Mohan, Deputy Mayor Baba Fasiuddin, and a posse of officials including GHMC Commissioner D.S.Lokesh Kumar and Hyderabad Collector Swetha Mohanty participated in the programme.